Television

NBA seeks remedy from new I&B Minister

18 Jun, 2014 - 06:37 PM IST | By Vishaka Chakrapani | 1364 Reads

MUMBAI: With the new Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar taking charge of changing the way the Ministry works in the country, the entire media fraternity is keen to meet him and make him aware of the issues concerning them.

The latest in the queue to meet the Minister is the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), a body that represents various national and regional news channels of the country. The group included NBA president and NDTV executive vice chairperson KVL Narayan Rao, vice president and MCCS CEO Ashok Venkatramani, India TV chairman Rajat Sharma, Zee Media group CEO Bhaskar Das and India Today group CEO Ashish Bagga.

The main issues that were put forth were regarding carriage fees and the ad cap. ?These are huge problem areas that need to be addressed because all news broadcasters are adversely affected. The minister has said that he would do whatever he can about our problems,? says a source.

The NBA had challenged the ad cap regulation by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in TDSAT which was then taken to the Delhi High Court where it is currently pending trial. News broadcasters say that they have been severely affected due to carriage fees.